Is Gender Inequality Greater at Lower or Higher Educational Levels? Common Patterns in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States

Evertsson, Marie; England, Paula; Mooi‐Reci, Irma; Hermsen, Joan M.; Bruijn, J.G.M. de; Cotter, David A.

doi:10.1093/sp/jxp008

Cited by 143 publications

(120 citation statements)

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“…This general pattern has been confirmed by numerous studies covering different parts of the world (e.g., England, Garcia-Beaulieu, & Ross, 2004;England, Gornick, & Shafer, 2012;Evertsson, England, Hermsen, & Cotter, 2007;Evertsson, England, Mooi-Reci, Hermsen, de Bruin, & Cotter, 2009;Nieuwenhuis, Need, & van der Kolk, 2012;Rubery, Smith, & Fagan, 1999; Author, 2014). It is consistent with human capital theory and the logic of opportunity costs: the more highly educated have a greater wage potential and therefore it is relatively more costly for them not to work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Yet, the literature shows interesting variations across countries in the strength of education effects on women's employment (e.g., England et al, 2012;Evertsson et al, 2009;Kenjoh, 2005) which warrant closer examination and explanation. The central aim of the present study is to foster our understanding of how and why education effects on women's employment vary crossnationally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

Steiber

Berghammer

Haas

2015

J of Marriage and Family

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The study examines how and why the effect of education on women's employment varies crossnationally. First, we present a theoretical model that (a) outlines the micro-level mechanisms underlying education effects on women's employment in the couple context and (b) proposes contextual moderators at the country level. Second, we test the theoretical model against survey data from the United Nations Generations and Gender Programme for five European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Norway). The data comprise 10,048 educationally homogamous heterosexual couples involving a woman aged 20-45. Our results indicate that more highly educated couples are more likely to have dual-earner arrangements in each country, yet the strength of education effects varies substantially between countries and across the family life-cycle. In contrast to prior work, we find that education effects are not generally smaller in countries that are supportive of women's employment. This relation only holds for later childrearing phases.Keywords: education, gender, couple employment, dual-earner, cross-national comparisons 3 More highly educated women are more strongly involved in the labor market. This general pattern has been confirmed by numerous studies covering different parts of the world (e.g., England, Garcia-Beaulieu, & Ross, 2004;England, Gornick, & Shafer, 2012;Evertsson, England, Hermsen, & Cotter, 2007;Evertsson, England, Mooi-Reci, Hermsen, de Bruin, & Cotter, 2009;Nieuwenhuis, Need, & van der Kolk, 2012;Rubery, Smith, & Fagan, 1999; Author, 2014). It is consistent with human capital theory and the logic of opportunity costs: the more highly educated have a greater wage potential and therefore it is relatively more costly for them not to work.Moreover, higher education tends to be associated with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes and better labor market opportunities. It has in fact become a truism -in the academic community and beyond -that women's employment is higher at higher levels of educational attainment.Yet, the literature shows interesting variations across countries in the strength of education effects on women's employment (e.g., England et al., 2012;Evertsson et al., 2009;Kenjoh, 2005) which warrant closer examination and explanation. The central aim of the present study is to foster our understanding of how and why education effects on women's employment vary crossnationally.To this end, we first present a comprehensive theoretical model that (a) outlines the micro-level mechanisms commonly argued to underlie education effects on couple's employment arrangements and (b) lays out the contextual conditions at the country level under which we may expect the different micro-level mechanisms to be of greater or lesser relevance. Second, we use international survey data to test hypotheses derived from the theoretical model. The focus of the investigation is on educationally homogamous couples that represent the majority of couples in the countries analyzed. We examine education effects on cou...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

Steiber

Berghammer

Haas

2015

J of Marriage and Family

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“…Second, both countries faced the question of affordability of and access to formal childcare principally for pre-school children 19 , a situation which was constituting a disincentive to labour force participation particularly among less educated and unskilled women (Evertsson et al, 2009). In France, geographical disparities in childcare coverage for the under threes and differential pricing of individual as opposed to collective care were contributing to a social bifurcation of the female labour market whilst in the UK the high cost of childcare was a problem for a wide-range of families.…”

Section: Changes To Work-family Reconciliation Policy In France and Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Change in work-family reconciliation policy in France and the UK since 2008: the influence of economic crisis and austerity

Windebank

2017

J. int. comp. soc. policy

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This article compares work-family reconciliation policy since 2008 in two contrasting case-study countries, namely France and the UK, and investigates how post-2008 economic circumstances and austerity measures have interacted with other policy drivers to influence the extent and shape of change in this policy area in these countries. The article demonstrates that work-family reconciliation policy in both countries has been resilient in the face of economic and budgetary problems and progress has been made albeit from different starting points and in path-dependent ways to “degender” parental leave and to improve the affordability of and access to childcare particularly for those on lower incomes. However, it also reveals that in both countries, despite partisan consensus on the need to further develop policy, a combination of economic constraints and the opposition to reform of key social and political actors has put a brake on change.

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“…Little attention has focused on household-level work-family arrangements (for exceptions see Saraceno, 2013 andEvertsson et al, 2009 on mothers' employment outcomes, and Cooke, 2011 on distributions of paid and unpaid work among couples).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporating ‘class’ into work–family arrangements: Insights from and for Three Worlds

Hook

2015

Journal of European Social Policy

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Insights from and for Three Worlds AbstractIn response to feminist critics, Esping-Andersen (1999) added family to the state-market nexus by examining the degree of familialism across regimes. In the absence of the state defamilializing care, however, it is difficult to predict work-family arrangements without reference to the overall level of inequality and a family's social location within it. Thus, levels of familialism interact with levels of economic inequality. I build on existing categorizations of how two-parent families combine work and care in European countries by adding an explicit consideration of how these patterns vary within countries by education. I utilize hierarchical clustering with data for 16 countries (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) from the Luxembourg Income Study and the European Social Survey. In some respects, refining country averages by education lends greater support to the tenets of Three Worlds, but also reveals a Southern European pattern distinguished by inequality in work-family arrangements more characteristic of liberal regimes. Findings also illustrate how countries that polarize between dual full-time and male breadwinner families largely polarize by education.

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Is Gender Inequality Greater at Lower or Higher Educational Levels? Common Patterns in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States

Cited by 143 publications

References 28 publications

Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

Contextualizing the Education Effect on Women's Employment: A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis

Change in work-family reconciliation policy in France and the UK since 2008: the influence of economic crisis and austerity

Incorporating ‘class’ into work–family arrangements: Insights from and for Three Worlds

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